


Catching Stardust

by AllegedlyAnn



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bottom Bucky Barnes, Dad Steve Rogers, Fluff, Gay Bucky Barnes, Kid Fic, M/M, Minor Gamora/Peter Quill, More Fluff, Pining, Pretending to Be Smooth, Smut, Stargazing, Stitch is cool, Tiny bit of Angst, Top Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 08:02:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26349787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegedlyAnn/pseuds/AllegedlyAnn
Summary: “As Sarah mentioned her Daddy, Bucky wondered where Mr. Rogers was anyway. Working at the museum confronted Bucky with a lot of dads and Mr. Rogers was one fine specimen. Bucky wouldn’t mind some eye candy right about now. “Where Steve has a daughter that likes space and running ahead, and Bucky is working at the gift shop the Rogers often end up in and hate-loves his roommate Peter Quill.If you like adorable and fluffy cuteness please come on in and enjoy.P.S. Stitch is cool!
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 68
Kudos: 332





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So a while ago I was writing with [Kalee60](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalee60/pseuds/Kalee60/) and the spark for this story was born… it then turned into a huge wildfire. Oopsie?
> 
> Fun Fact: Working title was ‘Giftshop Daddy AU’... it was totally misleading but still grew on me. 
> 
> I then nicked ‘Catching Stardust’ from the book ‘Catching Stardust: Comets, Asteroids and the Birth of the Solar System’ by Dr. Natalie Starkey (what a cool name!), who wrote the recent planetarium space show at the American Museum of Natural History: Worlds Beyond Earth. (Narrated by Lupita Nyong’o by the way!)
> 
> The AMNH is reopening this week, so maybe you can pay it a visit. But stay safe! 
> 
> But first, I hope you have fun with this little story.

* * *

Sometimes when Bucky knelt down to explain to a little kid what the difference between comets and meteorites was or how they were all made from stardust and he saw their big and interested eyes full of wonder, he thought about becoming a teacher. Preferably an elementary teacher, because he loved the kids at that age who were so thirsty for any kind of knowledge and were pestering all the adults around them with questions upon questions.

With him soon going to finish his Master in physics, the question of what he would do in the future was becoming more and more pressing. But then again they didn’t teach astrophysics in elementary school, right? And that’s what Bucky focused on and lived for. Of course, he could do his Ph.D., but somehow the idea of research had lost his appeal. He wanted to be done with studying.

Besides that, he loved working at the American Museum of Natural History. The Rose Center for Earth and Space had become a kind of second home for him in the past years. (His mother always lamented that he spent too many weekends here rather than visiting his family in Brooklyn, completely ignoring that Bucky came over nearly every week anyway.) First during his internship as an undergraduate and now working part-time in the gift shop. That had to count for something, right? Maybe he could become an educator here.

“Hello Mr. Giftshop”, a familiar voice stopped his musing and Bucky looked down at the smiling face of Sarah Rogers. A clasp formed like a shooting star held her blond hair out of her sparkling blue eyes. She was one of the most adorable human beings he knew, his baby sister only still winning because of family loyalty. 

“Hello there, little star. Having a fun day at the museum?” 

“Yes!”, Sarah’s big grin showed a gap between her teeth, where she lost another baby tooth. “We watched Night at the Museum again last night!” 

“Ah. So now you’re trying to find all the exhibits?”

“Already did that!” she proclaimed, before frowning. “I hope Daddy has time for a sleepover at the museum soon.” As Sarah mentioned her Daddy, Bucky wondered where Mr. Rogers was anyway. Working at the museum confronted Bucky with a lot of dads and Mr. Rogers was one fine specimen. Bucky wouldn’t mind some eye candy right about now. 

“Want to experience the museum at night yourself, hm?”, he smiled at Sarah to stop his brain from thirsting.

“I know that things don’t really come to life at night!”, Sarah said with a small pout. “But it would still be cool! What do you think the meteorites would do if they came to life at night?”

But before Bucky could answer, he was interrupted by her father. “Sarah! What have I told you about rushing ahead?” 

Bucky choked.

Glasses. Mr. Rogers wore glasses. And he looked- _wow_. For a moment Bucky remembered that day half a year ago when Mr. Rogers had shown up with a beard and Bucky’s inside started dancing. And now glasses. How did this man just get more handsome every time Bucky saw him? Unfair.

Not to mention the serious look he gave his daughter through these glasses. It did things to Bucky, things that were totally inappropriate at a working place, especially with little kids around. Groaning internally he tried to compose himself or at least pretended to be. 

Meanwhile, Sarah was looking up at her father as innocent as possible. “But Daaaaddyyyy, I told you I was going to the shop.”

Her father was clearly unimpressed and raised an eyebrow. “And did you wait for my answer? No, you didn’t.”

Sarah pouted and glared at her father stubbornly, the man’s only answer was crossing his arms as well and staring back. Bucky had watched some glaring contest between these two, so far Mr. Rogers hadn’t lost once, his answer to stubbornness was only being more stubborn himself.

Sure enough, Sarah eventually stopped pouting and sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, Daddy.” 

Mr. Rogers continued frowning for a moment, before nodding and dropping his arms. “Alright. You can have a look around, _but_ we are not buying anything.” When Sarah started pouting again, he quickly added. “Or we can just leave.” 

Not wanting to risk it Sarah nodded dismayed and started to look around. Mr. Rogers sighed before turning to Bucky with one o his sunshine smiles that made Bucky’s inside swoon. “ I hope she wasn’t too much trouble.”

“No trouble at all.”, Bucky smiled back. “She told me you watched Night at the Museum and that she wants a sleepover at the museum now.”

“Oh, dear. I better get ready for that, she won’t relent until I promise her we will.”, the man pretended to be dismayed, but the slight upward curl of his lips betrayed him. Bucky wondered if he could find out when that was and accidentally somehow be there as well? No, that would be too creepy. But Bucky really wondered how Mr. Rogers would look in sleepwear.

“And I better not watch the next movie with her any time soon, or she will use her puppy eyes at me until I plan a trip back to D.C. only to visit the Smithsonian.”, the man said with a grin. Bucky raised an eyebrow at him because by now he knew that Mr. Rogers was somehow immune to puppy dog eyes. 

“Don’t look at me like that. She can play the endurance game. She will give in for now only to attack you with puppy eyes again a few hours later.”, the man tried to defend himself and Bucky had to laugh. 

“Thinking about it, maybe I should watch the third part right before she visits her mother in London and have her deal with the aftermath.”, Mr. Rogers said with a cheeky grin. 

Bucky’s breath stocked. Not only because he somehow wanted to kiss that grin, but also because Rogers mentioned Sarah’s mother. 

Over the last year, Bucky had painstakingly gathered any information about the Rogers he could find, without it being creepy. Or at least too creepy. 

During their small talk, Bucky had learned that Rogers was from Brooklyn as well and they had talked a bit about what had changed in the past years. From that Bucky had concluded that Mr. Rogers wasn’t that old, and must have become a father pretty young. He knew that Rogers had lived in Washington D.C. before but had returned to New York City when Sarah had started school. 

There had never been a ring on his fingers, so Bucky believed he was not married. He had never seen them with a woman. They had mentioned Sarah’s mother once or twice, but that’S all she ever was ‘Sarah’s mother’. Not ‘my wife’ not ‘my girlfriend’. So Bucky had wondered if Mr. Rogers was single, but of course, never could be sure. 

But if she lived in London? Sure long-distance relationships were a thing. But Mr. Rogers had said ‘before she visits her mother’. Details are important. 

A customer who wanted to buy something interrupted his thoughts. Bucky smiled at him and wished him a good day after, mentally scolding himself for musing too much about Mr. Rogers’ relationship status. Even if the man was single, that didn’t mean he would want to date a gay student years younger than him. But a boy could dream, right? But maybe not at work.

Mr. Rogers had moved away from him and now Bucky watched him snatch up a pencil case with holographic constellations on it, without wanting to attract his daughter’s attention. It only worked because Sarah was preoccupied with something else. After all, Mr. Rogers was not exactly what Bucky would call inconspicuous.

Easing his way over to Bucky, Mr. Rogers slid the pencil case over the counter while looking at what Sarah was doing. “Quick, so she won’t see it!”

Muffling a laughter Bucky did as he was told, even while still staring at Mr. Rogers’ signature a bit too long: S.G. Rogers. Going with the most common names for S, it could be Steven, Scott, Stephen, Sam, Shawn, Sean, Stanley, Simon, Spencer,... and with G it could be Geroge, Gary, Gregory, Gabriel, or who now what… Maybe Bucky had spent too much time thinking about it. 

Giving Mr. Rogers the pencil case back with an amused grin was only met with an eye roll from the man, who tucked it in the inside of his jacket. “Kids are sneaky! It’s like they smell it.”

“I know, I know. I’m the oldest of four. Spent a lot of time babysitting and I know how dirty little kids can play.”

Just about than Sarah returned and tucked on her father’s arm. “Daaaaaddyyyy, I’m hungry.” 

With an amused shrug, Mr. Rogers said his goodbye, and Bucky watched them leave with a happy smile on his face. It was always a good day when he saw the Rogers and since Sarah was such a space nerd it happened fairly often.

When he returned to his dorm room after work his roommate Peter Quill started laughing. “Oh, I know that smile. Was it DILF day?” 

Bucky rolled his eyes and regretted the day he told Quill about Rogers. Not that wasn’t exactly the truth, Mr. Rogers was truly a Daddy Bucky would like to fuck. The man was after all built like a walking wet dream. And with his strong arms, he could surely carry Bucky around. Or push him around. Or push him down. Bucky wasn’t picky.

Groaning Bucky got his thirsty ass into a cold shower.

* * *

Just a few weeks later Sarah dragged her father into the shop again. With a wave at Bucky, she started roaming around and to Bucky’s satisfaction, her father wandered over to the counter. 

“Hello there, long time not seen.”, Bucky grinned as the man leaned against his counter and grinned back. 

“Well Sarah just had to see the planetarium show again and if we are here anyway she, of course, has to visit the shop. And I decided we are going to visit the shop first, that way I won’t have a problem getting her out of here again.”

Bucky chuckled. “Very clever. Bribery is very efficient.”

“Now I wouldn’t speak of bribery, just timely convenience?” 

“Of course”, Bucky said with a laugh. 

“Look, Daddy, isn’t this cute?” Sarah had returned with an infant onesie that read _Lil’ Explorer_. Bucky raised an eyebrow and saw Mr. Rogers do the same. “Cute, yes. But I think it’s a bit small for you.”

Sarah pouted frustrated, snatched the item out of her father’s hand, and stormed away. Both Bucky and Mr. Rogers blinked in surprise before the man sighed. “I think she is telling me that she wants a sibling.” 

Biting his lips Bucky really didn’t know what to say. “Well, if you ever have another child, you at least know that she will do the playsuit shopping?” 

This actually made Rogers huff a laugh, so Bucky hadn’t said a wrong thing. “Seems like it. But I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. I mean I would really like her to have a sibling, I always wanted one. I even thought about adoption, but raising one child alone while working full-time is challenging enough. And now I worry that the age difference is just too big.”

“Hm.”, Bucky said thoughtfully while leaning forward. “Well, I can only talk from my own experience. I am the oldest of four, my parents had me pretty young and I was very much not planned. When they had my older sister I was nearly 7. Then of course my father got deployed to Iraq and he missed all of her early years as well. He really wanted another child, so my mother made the deal that if he left the army they could have another. So I was already 10 when my brother was born. And my baby sister is 13 years younger than me.”

“How was that for you?”, Mr. Rogers asked with a curious smile.

“Well, I was always the one responsible for them, Ma always said that I grew up too fast because of it, but I’m not complaining. I love them all very fiercely, but they are a lot. I actually didn’t move out at first, choosing to commune and save some money. But when my siblings hid puberty... Really, my brother and older sister would start screaming matches that made studying impossible. So I moved out before starting my bachelor thesis, that would have been a nightmare. My brother was just happy to have a room for himself.” Bucky said with a chuckle. 

Mr. Rogers looked a bit wistful. “For me, it was always just my mother and I and when she passed it was only me until Sarah came along. I would have really liked a sibling... “ 

“I’m sorry for your loss.”, Bucky mumbled uncomfortably but Mr. Rogers just smiled. “It’s how it is. But help me out here, If you have a younger sister… My daughter is a picky one and sadly doesn’t like princess movies on principle. Or if they are about horses or fairies… or I don’t even know. Any recommendations? Preferable about stars, space travel, or the likes?

Bucky started to laugh out loud at that. “Oh believe me my youngest sister is not the right person then. She loves pink and glitter and dreams about her knight in shining armor. But my older sister is a better example? Sure the things are a bit old, but I used to watch Lilo & Stitch with her, how about that? Blue chaotic but cute alien? I’m sure your daughter would love that. And Becca made me watch Kim Possible with her. Teenage girl who spends her free time saving the world.”

Mr. Rogers hummed thoughtfully. “Sounds promising. Anything else?”

“Well, I sure hope you have already watched E.T”

“Of course we did! Admittingly I had forgotten that the language at times was… well. And the drinking. Thankfully she didn’t realize it. But she cried so hard towards the end, it made me feel bad.” Bucky tried to imagine it, sweet little Sarah hiding her face in her Daddy’s chest while Rogers’ strong arms hugged her tight as he spoke soothingly to her.

The man probably gave the best hugs ever, hugs that made you totally safe. Bucky wanted one. Rogers also had an amazing voice. Especially when using his gentle Daddy voice while talking to his daughter. Not to mention how he managed to keep his voice calm, patiently explaining things to Sarah while she probed and probed. Bucky would love Rogers to explain the world to him too. Maybe they could make a new version of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood?

“Uh, WALL·E? Did you watch WALL·E?” Bucky said to get his mind out of the gutter. 

“Yes, she was totally in love and wanted me to buy a robot. So guess what, we now own a robotic vacuum cleaner that she calls EVE and treats as a pet.” 

Bucky laughed, imagining how Sarah petted the little robot as if it was a dog. “Oh, that must be adorable.”

“She puts stickers on it, pardon me _her_.”, Mr. Rogers continued with a grin, clearly having the intention to make Bucky laugh some more.

“Now she wants us to move to a house with a garden so that we can buy a robotic lawn mover she wants to call WALL·E” It made Bucky laugh even more while trying not to squeal about the utter cuteness that was Sarah Rogers.

“Your daughter is precious.”, he finally said.

“That she is.”, Mr. Rogers smiled like the proud Daddy he was. It was adorable as well. “So, what did you say? Kim Impossible and Lila & Stitch?” 

Still smiling to himself Bucky just wrote the series on a piece of paper and handed it over. “Here.”

Smiling back Mr. Rogers took it before looking at his watch. “Well, I better get her out of here, if we want to watch the show.”

Still happily smiling, Bucky watched Mr. Rogers get his daughter and eventually carrying the giggling girl out of the shop with one last wave goodbye. Sighting dreamily Bucky watched them go and nearly ignored another customer. Luckily the woman took it with humor and just told him he got it bad with pointedly nodding to the door. Blushing furiously Bucky made extra sure to pay attention to her questions.

* * *

The next time he runs into the Rogers is in the middle of central park because his roommate used the warm spring day to drag him out for a jog. Sometimes Bucky missed the good old days of lazy Quill before the man turned all his fat into muscles when he decided that he would be an astronaut in the future and needed to be fit for that. Of course, he also enjoyed the attention of the girls.

In Buckys opinion the man had already been good looking while being chubby and he also firmly believed that if the girls were only interested in Quill because of his looks they weren’t the real deal. Quill had just shrugged and said he just wanted easy fucks, because really the man was just a huge pig himself. 

Of course, Bucky soon understood why they were going for a jog during central park when they by chance made a break right next to a group of girls doing yoga. Scowling he kicked Quill’s leg. “Really? You drag me out here only because you want to watch girls doing yoga, you pervert?”

“Ouch! And no, not any girl. See the one with red hair? That’s Gamora. I have asked her out three times now and the last time she kicked me in the balls.”, Quill said with a dreamy voice.

Aghast Bucky kicked him again. “She told you no and you still won’t leave her in peace?! Quill!”

“Stop it! Ouch! No, no. It’s not like that! You know she keeps smiling at me and volunteers to be my sparring partner during martial arts training. If she really wasn’t interested she wouldn’t do that, right?”

“Maybe she just likes to kick you around some more.”, Bucky deadpanned. “Seriously. It’s like you want her to kick you in the balls again, stalking her and watching her do yoga.”

“That’s why you are here, my dearest friend. You are my protection.”

“If she comes at you, I’ll move the hell out of her way and watch while she kicks you in the balls again.”, Bucky was totally unimpressed.

“That’s not what I meant! We are just buddy’s going for a run. You are gay, it’s not like you would peep on them.”

Speechless Bucky looked at his roommate while finally understanding why Quill insisted Bucky wore his ‘Gaylien’-shirt. “The fuck? How does me being here make a difference? And so you know you are peeping and are still doing it? Jesus Quill, we are leaving _right now_!”

Quill pouted while Bucky dragged him away. Moments like this made Bucky realize that he wasn’t the oldest of fur, but five. With Quill being the idiotic brother he never wanted. Seriously. Bucky blamed it on the company Quill grew up in. Most manners and any sense for common decency Quill owned nowadays were thanks to Bucky painstakingly installing them into him. Looked like it was time for another lesson.

Stopping once they were out of sight, Bucky turned around at Quill with blazing eyes. “Realtalk, Quill. You don’t stalk people, you don’t peep on them. Are we clear?”

“So you are allowed to thirst after your DILF, but I’m not allowed to thirst after Gamora?”, Quill said petulantly, showing his real age.

“You can thirst all you want, as long as you behave while doing it. And stalking her to the park to watch her ass while she does yoga is not behaving. Really, I should just go tell her what you are doing and watch why she kicks you in the balls again.”

The way Quill squirmed at that made Bucky groan in realization. “You know what, why don’t you go over and ask her to kick you in the balls again, because that is clearly what you want. I’m sure if you ask politely she will grant your wish.”

Quill blushed and Bucky nearly lost it when he came to another realization. “Wait, wait. You don’t just want to fuck her, huh? God damn it, Pete, do you have a crush?!” 

The fact that Quill wasn’t immediately denying it made Bucky gape like a fish. “You have a crush. A real crush! I never thought I would see the day.” Thinking about what Quill had said about Gamora, Bucky realized she clearly wouldn’t let him get away with shit. That way she could be an ally in making Quill behave civilized. Clearly a better one then Quill’s best friend Rocket. 

“She already rejected me three times.”, Quill said, truly dismayed. 

Bucky raised an eyebrow because he knew his roommate. “And did you do that without making sexual innuendos?” Quill sheepish look was answer enough and made Bucky huff. “Really, try to ask her out on a simple date. Get to know her a bit. You’re known for being a player, maybe she just wants something better for herself.” Bucky wouldn’t blame her.

Whatever Quill wanted to say in return was interrupted when a girl’s voice shouted. “Mr. Giftshop!” Surprised Bucky watched little Sarah Rogers run towards them from out of nowhere. Nowhere, in this case, being a playground to their right. 

“Why hello little Star, how are you today?” Bucky crouched down in front of her and had to chuckle when he noticed that she was wearing a shirt with Stitch on it. ‘Here comes trouble’ indeed.

“I’m good!” she grinned at him only to look sheepishly the moment she heard Mr. Rogers’ voice. “Sarah!” 

Looking up Bucky saw the man jog over and tried not to visibly. Looking back at Sarah with disbelief he asked “Please tell me you weren’t running away again?”

Bucky stood up again while Sarah tried to look as innocent as possible. “Hi, Daddy! Look who’s here.” Mr. Rogers gave his daughter an unimpressed look before smiling at Bucky. “Hey there, I hope she hasn’t caused any trouble.”

“Nah, not for me.”, Bucky said with a cheeky grin while ruffling Sarah’s hair. 

Mr. Rogers looked a bit long-suffering. “Young lady, what have I told you about running away?” 

“You said within eyesight! And I stayed within eyesight!”, Sarah defended herself with a stubborn look on her face and Mr. Rogers just sighted in defeat. “I guess you did. But I meant on the playground.” 

Victorious Sarah turned back to Bucky. “I like your shirt! I like aliens.”

Suddenly aware he was wearing his Gaylien shirt, Bucky blushed furiously but still smiled down at her. “I like your shirt as well. Stitch is pretty cool.”

“Stitch is the best!”, Sarah promptly answered, making Bucky laugh. “Of course he is.”

Deciding that he was out and proud and shouldn’t care if Mr. Rogers knew he was gay and that it didn’t matter at all, Bucky risked looking at the man, who was just smiling at his daughter. And when he looked up at Bucky he just kept smiling, no sign of disgust on his face. Bucky relaxed.

But he had forgotten that Quill was with him. “Do you even know what his shirt means, young lady?”

Sarah looked wide-eyed at Bucky and then at her father, while Bucky felt like he was about to have a panic attack. Mr. Rogers kneeled down beside his daughter and hugged her close. “Do you remember how we talked about the term gay? A man being without another man or a woman with another woman?”

Grinning with realization, Sarah looked back at the shirt. “Oh, the rainbow colors!”

“Yeah, but beside the rainbow colors in the background, the shirt also plays on it with combining the words gay and alien. To show that he is a bit different.” Bucky had mentioned before how he was in utter awe about Mr. Rogers’ gentle voice, right?

“But good different!”

“Yes, good different.”, Mr. Rogers nodded proudly at his daughter.

“Good different, just like how Daddy likes both man and woman?”, Sarah continued and Bucky nearly choked. Mr. Rogers just kept smiling at his daughter. “Exactly.” 

Sarah turned back to Bucky and shrugged. “Okay cool, but the shirt has an alien on it, that’s why I like it.” 

Quill started laughing loudly and Bucky soon joined in, Mr. Rogers meanwhile kidded his daughter’s hair chuckling. “Of course, little sunshine. Now let’s go back to the playground, okay?”

Sarah nodded and held onto her father’s hand while waving with the other. “Bye, Mr. Giftshop!”

“Bye, little star.”, Bucky eaved and watched them leave with a besotted smile.

Hitting his shoulder with excitement and nearly jumping up and down, Quill hissed. “Was that your Daddy?”

Horrified Bucky looked to the retreating pair but saw no sign that they had heard what Quil said. “He is not my Daddy”, Bucky hissed back.

“Fine, fine. Your DILF then. But I have to admit, you’ve got taste. Even I have to admit that the man is hot. And apparently bi… I can’t believe you both got outed by a little girl.” Quil was again laughing hysterically.

Bucky tried to look unimpressed and pointed at his shirt. “I basically screamed it at the world. I didn’t get outed.”

“But he did! And he is bi! Aren’t you happy I dragged out of our room now?”

“Okay, Quill, this doesn’t mean he will suddenly fall madly in love with me. And now let’s go home and start gaming. You look way too smug, I have to beat your ass to knock you down a peg or two.”

* * *

The next time the Rogers visited the shop while Bucky was working, he tried to act as normal as possible. Greeting him cheerfully Sarah again went off to poke around the shop, while Mr. Rogers called after her. “We’re not buying anything, sunshine!” before coming over to the counter with a smile asking Bucky after his day.

“Good. Had a busy morning but now it is calming down. The kids have exhausted themself and want to go home”, Bucky answered with a hesitant smile. 

“Yeah, kids have all this energy in the morning but after running around all day they are dead on their feet and just want to go home to watch some series.”

“And when it’s time for bed, they will tell you they are not tired at all, while their eyes are dropping.”, Bucky continued with a knowing smile. 

Another customer came to the counter wanting to buy things and Mr. Rogers moved away. Happily, Bucky watched him come back afterward. “You think your daughter is dead on her feet later?”

“First, she will proclaim that she is starving. Then I’ll feet her hot dogs and make her walk home. Once there, she will naturally say she isn’t tired while I have to carry her to bed and before I’m finished with the bedtime story she will be fast asleep.” Rogers said with a serious look before starting to grin. Bucky kind of missed the glasses, they would have made the face all the more impressive.

“Can I have this, please?”, Sarah suddenly returned with a T-shirt and pushed it at her father. Mr. Rogers frowned but once he saw that it read ‘Future Astronaut’ he started to look a little sad. “That’s my girl.” The gentle Daddy voice made Bucky’s knees weak. “Is it your size? Come on, put it one once.”

Smiling triumphantly Sarah put the shirt on, it was a bit big but she would undoubtedly grow into it, before leaving it with her father to roam around the shop some more. With a sigh, Mr. Rogers put the shirt on the counter. “Let me get my card.” 

Bucky raised a questioning eyebrow while he scanned the shirt, causing the man to smile ruefully in return. Why was the man sad and what could Bucky do about it?

“Sarah jumped ahead a year this January. At first, she was excited about being with older kids but… By age 8 children often prefer to be friends with peers of the same gender. But Sarah says the girls talk too much about dolls and horses and that they are boring and well, the boys exclude her simply because she is a girl.” The man shrugged helplessly before looking to where his daughter was browsing through the store.

He looked so sad and helpless that Bucky had to suppress the urge to hug him. “On top of that, these kids have ideas about what they want for the future. Like boys will be engineers or policemen and girls will be nurses or fashion designers. But Sarah wants to be an astronaut and, well, they have been laughing about her, telling her how a girl can’t do that kind of job.”

Scratch wanting to hug Rogers, Bucky wanted to engulf Saah in his arms and tell her to never stop dreaming. Or maybe he wanted to kick some kids asses. “Urgh. Really? gender-stereotyping jobs... that’s just awful. Maybe I really should become an elementary teacher, that’s a rather ‘female’ job after all, isn’t it.”, Bucky said frustrated. “You tell your gril to not give in and shoot for the stars, you hear me.” 

Mr. Rogers laughed and looked a little happier. “Don’t worry. She is going to wear that shirt proudly to school on Monday. She is my daughter and has inherited my stubbornness and dislike for bullies.”, the man looked so proud, Bucky’s heart melted.

“The education psychologist said to leave it be for now and monitor the situation. That the kids all need to grow up a bit more. But the teachers are doing their best to break up gender stereotypes. I just hope it will be okay. Hope she will be okay.” Bucky was back to wanting to hug Rogers. 

But the man just smiled brightly at him suddenly. “By the way, I’m really thankful for you pointing me at Lilo & Stitch. Sarah absolutely loves it! And with Lilo she has a female role model that also is a bit of an outsider, I guess? Same with Kim Possible, although she is too focused on Stitch at the moment.”

Blushing Bucky smiled. “Well, now that you mention it if you want a female role model, then how about Zita the Spacegirl? It’s a graphic novel series.”

Blinking Mr. Rogers perked up with interest. “Oh?” 

“Yes, and maybe City of Ember? It’s the first part of a science fiction or rather dystopian fiction series. And one of the protagonists is a girl.” It was of course purely by chance that Bucky knew about these books.

“And in a few years, she will probably like the His Dark Materials series? I loved the books and I’m really hoping the series they are filming is better than the movie whose existence we don’t acknowledge further, are we clear?” Grinning amused Mr. Rogers dutifully nodded his head.

“Oh! How about Star Wars? She should be old enough to watch A Phantom Menace?” 

Now Rogers stopped nodding dutifully. “No, absolutely not. She is watching the movies in the right order and the right order starts with A New Hope.”

Bursting into laughter Bucky held up his hands placating. “Of course, of course. But you know that she’ll love lightsabers.”

“Believe me, she already does.”, the man deadpanned and Bucky laughed some more while paying attention to another customer wanting to pay. When they were gone Bucky turned to Mr. Rogers again.

“But if we are talking about female role-models, how about some real-life ones? You should tell her about Margaret Hamilton and Katherine Johnson!”

“Who?”, Rogers asked with wide eyes.

Bucky could only stare at him in disbelief. “Margaret Hamilton and Katherine Johnson? Are you serious? Hamilton is a computer scientist and helped develop the flight software for NASA’s Apollo program. No man on the moon without Hamilton! And Katherine Johnson was the first African-American woman that worked as a NASA scientist. And she was part of Project Mercury. So no man in space without Johnson!”

“Mercury project?” Rogers repeated and Bucky looked at him unimpressed. “Really? You have a budding astronaut in the house and have no idea about the history of human spaceflight?”

Mr. Rogers smiled sheepishly. “Looks like I didn’t do my homework, huh?”

With his lips twitching up into a smile Bucky started writing down some key points. He added Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride for good measure, Sarah wanted to be an astronaut after all. Before also listing the movie Hidden Figures and that it had a book that had a young reader edition. Hastily scribbling down Zita the Spacegirl and City of Ember as well, he handed Mr. Roger the paper. “Here, better start googling.”

“Thank you.”, the other man said with a voice that was cracking slightly as he pocketed the paper. “I- Thank you…” Bucky couldn’t describe the look in Mr. Roger’s eyes, only that it made him want to give him a hug again. Blushing slightly he bashfully waved with his hand. “No problem, I’m just thinking about the future of human spaceflight.” 

The smile Bucyk got in return made his stomach flop. “Well, then I better make sure that the future of human spaceflight doesn’t starve right? Hey, Sunshine! Are you ready to leave? I promised you hot dogs, didn’t I?” 

Sarah came back running while chanting “Hot dogs! Hot dogs!” and grabbed her father’s hand to drag him out of the shop. “Bye, Mr. Giftshop!” 

With a smile Mr. Rogers let himself get pulled along while he waved his goodbye at Bucky. Waving back Bucky’s heart exploded from the cuteness and he sighed. He really wanted to go eat hot dogs with them.

* * *

Somehow Bucky had managed to get Quill into presentable clothes and onto the Stark Expo because clearly, he was the only adult between them and therefore realized that looking at potential employees would be a good idea. Quill had only been convinced after Bucky told him that NASA and SpaceX both had a stand. Tony Stark sure knew whom to get for his Expo.

Now that they were there Quill of course was fascinated by everything and Bucky just followed him with a look of annoyed fondness. Standing behind Quill who fawned over some new headphones he felt something tugging at his shirt. Confused, he turned around to find a crying Sarah Rogers clinging to his shirt.

Feeling a rush of adrenalin Bucky dropped down to his knees with wide eyes. “Hey, Sarah, hey. What’s wrong?”

“I can’t- I can’t find my dad.”, she said hiccuping while trying to press closer, until she hid her face in his neck and started crying for real.

“Shh, little Star. It’s okay. We will find him, okay? Everything will be alright.”, and he hugged her little body closer. Gently rocking her until she calmed down a bit. 

By now Quill had noticed her as well and showed that deep down he was actually a decent human being because instead of joking around he started to look around the crowd, but was unsuccessful “I don’t see your DIL, äh, Daddy”.

“Hey sweety, where did you see your father last?”, Bucky gently pried Sarah a bit away from him, so that he could look her in the eyes. The question only made new tears well up in her big blue eyes and Bucky’s heart hurt for her. “With- With Stark Industries.”

Of course, this being the Stark Expo, there was more than just one stand by Stark Industries, so the information was not very helpful. Not to mention that Mr. Rogers was probably running around the Expo worried sick. Bucky could take her to an information desk, maybe they could help. Or…

“Sarah, do you know your father’s number? Or did he give you a card or something?” This made Sarah blink and calm down. Hastily she showed him a tag that was sewed into her jacket. Rogers was one clever man.

Smiling reassuringly at Sarah he pulled out his phone. “Let me call him, okay?” She nodded with hopeful eyes. “Don’t worry, little star, we’ll have you back with your father in no time.” 

Dialing the number, Bucky held his breath. “Rogers.” came the clipped but familiar voice from the other side of the line.

“I have your daughter!”, Bucky rushed to say, feeling the relief in his bones before realizing how Mr. Rogers could interpret that. “Oh god, not like kidnapped her, but I found her. Sarah, say something to your dad.”

Mortified Bucky pushed the phone at Sarah. “Daddy?”, she asked with a small voice. 

Luckily Bucky was close enough to the phone that he could hear the breath of relief from the other man. “Sarah, baby, where are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m, uh, I’m fine. I’m with Mr. Giftshop.”

There was a moment of silence before Bucky could swear he heard a laugh come out of the phone. “Mr. Giftshop? From the museum, really?... Can you give him back the phone, my little sunshine?” 

Forgetting that her father couldn’t see her she nodded and gave Bucky his phone back. Ruffling her hair with a smile, Bucky picked it up. 

“Hey, Mr. Rogers. Uhm, so, where are you? Or do you want to meet somewhere, or… you know?” He asked sheepishly.

“I- Could you come to Stark’s Designer stand? It’s in the fifth aisle?”

Trying to remember the layout Bucky realized they weren’t that far away. “Yes sure. We will be there shortly.”

“Okay. Great. Thank you! See you in a bit?”

“Yeah.” There was a moment where both of them waited for the other to hang up until Bucky finally did. 

When he smiled at Sarah she returned hit with dry but red eyes. “Okay, little star. You want to walk or ride on my shoulders?”

“Up!”, she said with big eyes and already climbing Bucky like a little monkey. Laughing he grabbed her and positioned her behind his head, before standing up and turning to Quill who had watched the whole exchange silently. “So, I have a kid to deliver back. You’re coming with me or do we want to meet up later again.”

“Oh, I’m coming with you for sure.”, Quill said with a big grin that made Bucky a bit uneasy, but he shrugged and started moving.

Finding the stand in the fifth aisle was easy because it was unsurprisingly flashy, but it was surprisingly big. For a moment Bucky wondered how he would find Mr. Rogers in it when Srah started to wiggle and nearly jumped off his shoulders and took off running.

Feeling his heart drop into his guts, Bucky chased after her, afraid that he would have to call Mr. Rogers and tell him he had lost his daughter. But Sarah clearly knew where she was going and with a loud “Daddy!” jumped into her father’s waiting arms. 

The man had kneeled down and was hugging her tight. Bucky smiled at the reunion before his brain caught up with the fact that the man was wearing a suit. After the attack of the beard and the ambush of the glasses now came the assault of the suit. Bucky’s brain didn’t compute.

Why was the man wearing a suit? A black business suit? Wait, was the man working here? Yes, there was a Stark name tag on his shirt. Holy shit. Blinking rapidly he tried to get back to the here and now.

“Daddy. I’m sorry! Please don’t be angry.”, Sarah sobbed into her father’s neck.

“Oh sweetie, I’m not angry. I’m just relieved to have you back in my arms. Darling, I know I promised you we would have a look around, and I’m sorry that I have to work longer than planned, but you can’t just run away like that. I have told you so many times to stop running around wildly. I was so worried.” 

“I didn’t mean to! I just wanted to have a small look around, but there were so many people and then I didn’t know where I was anymore.”

“Sunshine.”, Mr. Rogers just mumbled, rocking her and kissing her forehead until she calmed down. Finally, the man looked up at Bucky with a smile, while his eyes still looked like they were fighting hard against the tears. Biting his lips unsurely Bucky gave the man a shy wave. 

Giving his daughter one last squeeze, Mr. Rogers stood up and stepped towards him. For a moment it looked like he was going to hug Bucky, but instead, he held out his hand for a shake. “Thank you.” 

“Uh, oh, eh. No problem. Really!” 

The sunshine smile made the man even more handsome. “I’m Steve Rogers by the way.”

Steve! Hah! Wait, he should introduce himself as well, right? “James Barnes. Nice to meet you. Or eh, know your name, I guess?” Please just let him stop talking. 

With one last squeeze of his hands, Rogers let go. “I’m- my colleague had a car accident, it was just minor but well… And now I have to work longer than expected until they find someone who isn’t just a poor intern. I guess she got bored.” with that he looked down at his daughter, who was still clinging to his side. 

“Oh-uh. She can come with us? I mean, if she wants. If you want. I mean. I know we don’t know each other very well, but I promise I won’t kidnap her? And you know where I work so that would be pretty stupid anyway?”

Wide-eyed he looked at Rogers and then at Quill who had found them some time ago. His roommate blinked at him and then shrugged. “Sure, we can do that. She can come along if she wants.”

Rogers was clearly surprised by the offer and looked down at his daughter who in return looked up with a thoughtful look. 

“Uh and you have my phone number, you could call anytime? I could write you down where I live… we live… that’s my roommate by the way. Peter Quill. Say hi Pete.” Bucky was totally rambling, but he wanted them to accept the offer, wanted to help them out so badly.

“Hi.”, Quill piped with a little wave. Sarah giggled, Rogers grinned in amusement and Bucky felt like an idiot.

But Sarah now looked up at her father with pleading eyes. “Can I, Daddy?”

Looking down at her and then back at Bucky, Rogers sighed. “Do you want to? And that would be really okay with you?”

“Yes.”, Bucky and Sarah said nearly simultaneously.

“Okay, okay.”, Rogers said with a heavy tone. “But you’ll pick up when I call?”

“Of course!” Bucky nodded vehemently.

“Okay… And you will behave young lady? No running around!”

“Yes, Daddy””, Sarah said with a serious nod. 

“Fine, okay. I’ll call when- when my replacement gets here?”

“Sure. We can return anytime.”

“Good. Okay. Then have fun, okay?”, he ruffled his daughter’s hair, who finally let go of his legs only to latch onto Bucky’s with a big grin.

Bucky couldn’t help himself from grinning back just as widely. “You want up again?” 

The girl pushed her lips forward, thinking about it before she nodded. “Yes. You are not as tall as Daddy, but I can still see better!”

“Sarah!”, Rogers said half aghast and half laughing. But Bucky just chuckled as he pulled her up, he was after all very much aware of Rogers’ physique. “I bet he is much stronger than me as well.”, he heard himself say and wanted to curse his brain. _Be mindful of your thoughts_ indeed.

Meanwhile, Sarah just nodded as she settled on his shoulders. “Yes. I’m sure he is. Nobody is as strong as Daddy.”

Not sure if he wanted to laugh or sink into the floor, Bucky looked anywhere but at in Rogers’ eyes while they said their goodbyes and hastily left the stand. Outside Quill doubled over laughing and Bucky kicked him slightly hoping that Sarah wouldn’t see. 

Grinning widely and moving away so that Bucky couldn’t kick him again before asking. “Say, Bucky, do you think a child on your shoulders will make you more or less commendable for potential employers?” 

Scowling but aware that he had a kid on board Bucky just mouthed the ‘Fuck you!’.

“Bucky?”, Sarah asked in confusion.

“Yeah, that’s what everyone calls me, little star.”

“Bucky?”, she repeated in a judgmental tone.

“Hey!”, Bucky poked her- “Don’t make fun of my name, that’s not nice.”

Sarah giggled but nodded acceptingly. 

“Well, if we are on the business of names. I don’t think we have been probably introduced, young lady. I’m Peter Quill, but you may call me Star-Lord.” 

“Pff, don’t listen to him, little star. Pete or Quill will do just fine.” 

“I’m Sarah.”, the gril said and Bucky could nearly see the raised eyebrow she was giving Quill.

The man only pouted for a short moment, before grinning again. “Okay, Sarah. So Bucky told me you want to be an astronaut. Well, so do I. So let’s go and visit NASA and SpaceX!” 

Sarah shrieked in excitement and Bucky wondered why he never anticipated that these two would become allies. 

“Oh come on Bucky. Just because you want to keep your feet on Mother Earth, doesn’t mean this isn’t interesting for you! Think about all the satellites and rovers that will give us all this new information about space.”

“You mean, like the Starlink satellites, who so nicely disturb the view on the stars with their light pollution?”

“Don’t listen to him, Sarah. He just likes to be a spoilsport.”

Sarah giggled as they made their way over to NASA, while Bucky just rolled his eyes at a cheekily grinning Quill. Now Bucky knew that Quill wasn’t bad with kids from him interacting with Bucky’s siblings, but with Sarah, the man was just something else. Must be the shared interest. 

The young girl meanwhile soaked up all the information that Quill and Bucky shared with her and immensely enjoyed all the goodies and small gifts she got. The guys from NASA had loved her, especially because she was wearing her ‘Future Astronaut’ t-shirt. 

At one point Quill pulled out his phone. “Say cheese.” Bucky smiled for the picture before giving Quill a confused look. His roommate just rolled his eyes “I’ll send it to you, so you can send it to her dad!”

Sheepishly Bucky did just that. ‘ _Haven’t kidnapped her yet, but I think NASA and SpaceX are thinking about it_.’ First of all, the picture was cute as hell. Secondly, Rogers now had a picture of him. Which wasn’t the point, but satisfied Bucky immensely. 

_‘No one kidnaps my baby girl! They can have her in the future if she still wants to go.’_

_‘Don’t worry, I’ll keep her safe and will bring her back to you.’_

It was a while later that his phone vibrated with another message _‘Oh really? Well then better follow up your words and bring her back, my replacement is here.’_

“Alrighty fellows, we are heading back.”, he declared, interrupting Quill and Sarah who were looking at some form of AI-controlled robots, Bucky hadn’t paid enough attention.

“Already?”, Sarah said dismayed. Was it wrong of Bucky to hope that maybe it wasn’t just because of the interesting robots, but also because she didn’t want to leave Bucky? 

“Yeah, your Daddy is waiting for you.” This had Sarah nod in acceptance while she went up to Bucky and held up her arms.

“Oh no, little star. I have carried you for a good hour already, I’m exhausted. I think it is time for you to walk.” 

Dismayed Sarah pouted. “Daddy can carry me longer than you.” Causing Quill to double over in laughter again while Bucky closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I thought we already established that he is stronger than me.” 

Quill was still laughing as he kneeled down in front of her. “How about I carry you for now?” Sarah looked at him for a moment before nodding.

“Oh, he is taller than you!”, she said in delight as Quill stood up, causing the man to burst into laughter again. Bucky’s eye twitched. 

“As I see you truly didn’t kidnap her.”, Rogers said with a big grin as they entered the designer stand again. 

“Well, I promised, didn’t I?” Bucky smiled as Steve retrieved his daughter from Quill and ruffled her hair once she was on the ground. But her eyes turned big and she was off running again. “Auntie Nat!” 

A redhead woman caught her and raised her up against her hip. “Why hello little Miss Trouble, have you been running around again?” The woman said with raised eyebrows making Sarah pout. “I was bored.”

Rogers sighed in defeat and turned away to smile at Bucky. “Thank you.”, his voice was so heartfelt that Bucky had to gulp. 

“Uh. It was no problem! Really, we had a lot of fun.”

“Yes! Especially when she kept dissing you for not being as tall or as strong as her Daddy.”, Quill of course had to add his two cents. Bucky wanted a repurchase.

Sarah’s father meanwhile looked like he was caught between abashment and amusement, so Bucky rolled his eyes and shrugged with a smile to show the man it was okay. 

Shaking his head and smiling ruefully, Rogers' soft eyes looked at Bucky again. “I’m very grateful that you helped us out today. Just thank you, okay? Is there anything I can do to make it up to you.”

While Bucky was still caught in the way his heart swelled just because he had helped this man, Quill again opened his mouth. “Coffee. This guy is addicted to coffee. So buy him one and he’ll be happy, especially because it comes from you.” 

Eyes bulging out, Bucky’s head snapped around. “Quill!”, he squeaked before turning back to Rogers with a fake smile. “Don’t worry, it was my pleasure. I need nothing. And Quill and I still have things to do. Bye!” 

Snatching his annoying roommate’s arm, Bucky pulled him out of the stand without giving Rogers the chance to say anything in return. Stopping a safe distance away he glared at the asshole he shared a room with. “What the hell?!”

“Oh come on, man. I have been listening to you gushing about that guy and his daughter for ages now. I just thought I should give it a little push.” 

“But! But- but you can't just…! Oh god, I can never look that man in the eyes again.”

“Well, if you had you would have seen the way they widened while he started blushing like crazy. Not to mention that the redhead started grinning with glee. So just wait, see if he calls you or pretend like nothing happened the next time you see each other.” Quill shrugged, obviously not feeling guilt at all.

Bucky’s eyes narrowed to slits and he stabbed his finger into Quill’s chest. “Just so we are clear, for this I’m making sure to give your Gamora situation _a little push_!” 

Quill’s eyes widened in horror. “No! No, you wouldn! Bucky, come on. That’s a bit hardcore, don’t you think?”

“No, I think it’s absolutely fair!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love to hear from you, the second part will be up shortly!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Hey, this is Steve. As far as I know, I owe you a coffee. You’ve got any time to meet up? Preferably weeknights after 5? Wednesday maybe?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said shortly, but I felt honor-bound to finish [Slightest Touch](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23496343/chapters/56340649/) first and then came real-life.
> 
> On the other hand, I now have a new job 🥳  
> Fun fact: I actually used to work in the gift shop of a museum before. What a coincidence, right? 😇

* * *

Rogers didn’t message him. At least not for the next couple of days. 

But then Bucky woke up to a message: _‘Hey, this is Steve. As far as I know, I owe you a coffee. You’ve got any time to meet up? Preferably weeknights after 5? Wednesday maybe?’_

The surprised squeak he let out, was loud enough to wake Quill up. “What’s going on.”

Opening his mouth but finding no words, Bucky simply pushed his phone into Quill’s hand. “Oh. My. God.”, his roommate said with wide eyes that turned totally gleeful right after. “You better be eternally grateful, that I scored you a date with your DILF.” 

“Yes, well I guess your little push was useful after all, so I better step up my game with Gamora.” Bucky watched with great satisfaction how Quill’s smug face turned horrified. “What? No!!!”

That’s why by next Wednesday Bucky sat in a coffee shop with his best pair of skinny jeans and waited for Rogers - No, he should call him Steve, right?- to show up. But the time they had agreed on came and went and after 10 more minutes, Bucky ordered himself an iced coffee to feel less stupid. There was no message from the man and finally, Bucky sighed and decided he would give the man time until he had finished his coffee before he would leave.

But then Ro- Steve entered the shop, flustered and panting, but they lit up when he scanned the room and found Bucky. “You waited!”, he said with a big smile as he put his briefcase next to Bucky’s table. “I’m so sorry, I got held up at work.”

“Why didn’t you text me?”, Bucky asked as he nibbled on his bottom lip.

Looking guilty and sheepish at the same time, Rogers looked at his briefcase. “I- uh. When I noticed how late it was, I threw my phone in the bag, which meant it was now on the bottom of it? I tried to get it out in the elevator but, uh, well. And then I decided I was better off running?”

Bucky stared at the man disbelieving, watched the blush spread over his face, and then he started to giggle. After he had calmed down somewhat he looked at Steve’s still blushing face with a smile, for a moment they just stared at each other, before Bucky shyly said “Hi.”

“Hey.”, the other man finally sat down with a smile and pointed at Bucky’s coffee. “I see that you already started without me, which is totally fair since I was late. But if I remember correctly I was meant to buy you one.”

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll happily drink another.”, Bucky said back with a cheeky grin, watching Steve smile back more relaxed “Yeah? What do you want then?”

Telling the man to get him another iced coffee, Bucky watched him stand up and move to the counter. As Steve had taken off his suit jacket, Bucky had a free view on the man’s firm and round ass. 

When Steve turned around with two cups in his hands, Bucky hastily averted his eyes and instead stared at his hands. They again fell into an awkward silence as Steve sat down, just looking at each other trying to find words.

“So uh, hey. I’m Bucky by the way. I mean, that’s what everyone calls me. I know I introduced myself as James and well, my full name is James Buchanan. Bucky is a nickname that just stuck?” Bucky looked down at his hands again and mentally groaned.

“Bucky, hm? Well hello then, my full name is Steven Grant.” “Grant, huh?”, Bucky said smiling to himself, finally, the name riddle was solved. “Well then... Hi Steve, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Hi, Bucky. It’s nice to meet you as well, finally having a name for that cute guy in the gift shop that keeps writing me little helpful notes.” 

Blushing, Bucky bit his lips to suppress a squeal. “Well, uh. I’m glad that my little notes were helpful?” 

“Very helpful.”, the man said with such earnestness in his voice that Bucky had to hide his face in his hands while trying to fight against the queasiness in his stomach. 

A hand gently touched his arm, making him look up into Steve’s hesitant smile. “So, uh. I guess this is the coffee to thank you for looking after Sarah at the Expo, but I have a few more things to be thankful for, don’t I?”

“Are you just kind of implying there will be more coffee’s of gratefulness?”

“Well, if you want them?”, Steve said with a hopeful shrug and Bucky groaned while hiding face again. “Oh fuck, that’s real smooth Rogers.”

Steve’s hand wandered up to his arm and gently pried away a hand. “Only if you want to, of course. But I would like to get to know you.”

Somehow they were not holding hands and Bucky looked stupidly at them while also trying to comprehend what Steve had said. “Yeah? I would like to get to know you as well.” 

“Yeah? I’m glad.”, they fell into silence again, staring at their joined hands, occasionally squeezing them or using a thumb to stroke the other man’s hand.

“So, uh, as we have already established, my name is Steve. And you already know the most important thing about me: I have a daughter. And between her and my job, I don’t actually have a lot of time… And well, if there is something with Sarah… She is my top priority, so… And I haven’t dated in years and never really had a serious relationship, especially not with another man, so there’s that.”

Incredulous Bucky looked at Steve. “Wait, wait, wait. Did you just ask me to date you and then listed all the reasons why I shouldn’t?” 

“Well, full disclosure? And I won’t pretend I’m good at dating. I don’t know what I am doing.”, the man said with a helpless shrug.

Squeezing Steve’s hand Bucky tried to suppress his chuckle. “Well, okay then. So dating is used in order to get to know each other. So generally people ask questions and talk about themself.”

The unimpressed look Steve gave him made Bucky finally lose it and he started laughing. The older man squeezed his hand in retaliation. “You are a little shit, aren’t you? Fine, let me ask the first question then: What’s your favorite color?”

Bucky looked up at the man in disbelief, but the daring look on Steve’s face told him that the man exactly knew how cliché he was being. “Black. And blue. Yours?”, he said grinning. 

“Red, white and blue.” Bucky tried to gauge if the man was shitting him, but Steve just raised his free hand in defense. “What?! I was born on the 4th of July, I’m just going with the theme.” 

Still not believing him, Bucky narrowed his eyes at him. “It’s the truth! Do I need to show you my driver’s license?”

Huffing Bucky leaned back again. “No, okay, I believe you... But then it’s your birthday soon.”

“Yeah… turning 32”, Steve answered the unasked question. Bucky tried to gauge how old Sarah was, to figure out what age he had been when she was born.

“I turned 24 shortly before Sarah was born, she is turning 8 in September.”, Steve said with a smile and Bucky blushed feeling caught. ”Oh, well I turned 24 in March.”

“24, hm? Well, then you are not quite as young as I thought.”

Bucky pouted. “I know I have a babyface. I’m really just waiting for the beard to stop having stupid holes.”

“Oh, don’t worry. It’ll come the closer you get to 30.”

“Well, there’s hope then, huh?” Bucky said before he started nibbling on his bottom lip. ”So Sarah?”

“You want to know how she came along?” Bucky nodded hesitantly, but Steve just smiled and squeezed his hand again. 

“Well so, her mother’s name is Peggy and she was an exchange student from Britain when we met. We became fast friends… we didn’t date or anything we just, well the usual, got drunk, had sex, and didn’t use protection. Well, we tried dating after Peggy found out she was pregnant, managed that until Sarah was a year old… but… yeah. We still got along, even decided to keep living together for Sarah’s sake but well, or goals in life didn’t exactly match up?”

Stroking his beard Steve tried to find his words and Bucky squeezed his hand while smiling encouragingly. 

“Peggy wanted a career, wanted to build her own firm… she hadn’t even decided if she wanted children. And I? Well, I dreamed of living in a brownstone in Brooklyn, with children and maybe a dog. I wasn’t as ambitious as her and since we separated anyway I offered to take custody of Sarah so that she would be free to do her things. She lives in London now… But we try to let Sarah see her mother as often as possible and Peggy calls often. It’s not like she doesn’t care, okay? She is a good person!”

Smiling softly, Bucky squeezed his hand again, “Of course she is.” 

Steve squeezed right back “How about you? Your family I mean?”

“Oh well, I already told I’m the oldest of four right? So there is my pa, George, my ma, Winnifred and then there is Rebecca, Becca or Becs, Edward, Ted, and my baby sister Mary. Becca is just finishing high school and then she is off to Princeton. Ted is going to high school after this summer and can’t wait to join the football team and Mary well she is 11, at the moment she has decided to become a fashion designer.” Bucky said with a look that made Steve chuckle.

“Well, and all my grandparents are still alive. Pa’s parents live in the same brownstone as we do and my other grandparents live close by with one of my aunt and her children. I have other aunts and uncles… and a bunch of cousins that now started having kids. To say it simply, my family is rather big and it gets crowded on Thanksgiving or Christmas, or any birthday. Seriously we just search for reasons to squeeze us all together in small rooms.”

“That sounds amazing.” The look in Steve’s eyes had turned a little wistful and Bucky suddenly remembered that the man had said it was only Sarah and him. He bit his lips because it was maybe a little early to say that Bucky had no problem sharing his family with Steve.

“But now you have told me what your siblings are up too, but what do you do?”, Steve asked while stroking Bucky’s hand with his thumb.

“Oh, ah, right. Uhm, I’m just about finishing my Master degree in physics. I have till next year to figure out what I’m doing then.”, Bucky shrugged helplessly.

“Don’t worry about it. It will come to you.” Steve said with an encouraging squeeze of Bucky’s hand.

“What do you do? You work as a designer for Stark Industries?”

“Yeah, I manage my own small team actually. I do get promotion offers for higher ranks, but then I would have to work more hours and I don’t want that because of Sarah. At the moment I manage to get out early on Fridays.”, the man said with a self-conscious shrug, but Bucky could only smile.

Something he continued to do, while they kept holding hands and talking about everything and nothing until Steve eventually had to leave to put his daughter to bed. The man looked a bit regretfully to leave him and asked when Bucky wanted to meet up for coffee again, so Bucky counted that date as a win.

* * *

For the next few weeks, Bucky and Steve meet up every Wednesday when Sarah had swim training. It was going well, if slow, because meeting in person wasn’t that easy, but Steve often called him after having put Sarah to bed. 

At the moment Steve was up at the Catskills with his daughter for a getaway weekend. Apparently he had a friend by the name of Clint who owned a cabin there. Bucky was so not jealous. Not at all. 

“Ah don’t pout, Buck. I’m sure you’ll manage to get out of the city soon as well.”, Steve tried to placate him on the phone.

“Not so sure about that… tell me, can you see the stars?”, Bucky asked wistfully, already aware that of course, Steve could fucking see the stars, it was the main reason he was so jealous.

“Yeah, I can see the Milkyway? No real light pollution in the mountains and the sky is pretty clear.”

Sighing dreamily and huffing, Bucky asked what constellations Steve could see.

“I- uh, I’m not an expert?”

“Sometimes I feel really sorry for your daughter, to have such an uninformed father.”

“Hey!”, Steve said indignantly. “Okay, fine. Well, I know the Big Dipper and yes there it is. And close to it is the Little Dipper, right? With the polar star.”

“Yeah, that’s why it is a bit further north.”

“North, okay. Aha! I can see it… but isn’t the north star supposed to be the brightest star?”

Bucky rolled his eyes but smiled. “Nope. It’s just very close to the northern celestial pole, so it appears like it never moves position. Therefore it shows where north is in the night sky and is used for navigation.”

“Appears? So it does move?”

“Yes, at the moment it’s moving closer to the celestial pole, but in the future, it will move away and pass by Gamma Cephei- that’s a star in the constellation of Cepheus.”

“Wow, really? So it wasn’t always the north star?”

“Well, in late antiquity there was no bright star around the celestial pole, but Polaris was already the closest and brightest star and was therefore used. But it really only became the north star as we know it during the Middle age.”

“Okay. Wow. I didn't know that. So what’s the brightest star then?”

“That would be Sirius.”

“The Dogstar, right? Where is it?”, Bucky noticed with amusement that Steve sounded really excited.

“Somewhere below your feet.”, He laughed. “You’ll have to wait until winter to see it.”

“Okay.”, Steve said, a little disgruntled. “Next brightest star then?”

Bursting into laughter, Bucky had to calm down before he could explain to Steve: “So the next brightest star is Canopus and that one is so far south you won’t ever see it unless you travel. And before you ask, the next brightest ones are stars within Alpha Centauri and they are again too far south.”

“Really?”, Steve said disheartened. “Don’t ever tell Sarah, she’ll make me travel!”

“I think she either already knows or will figure that out in the not so far future.”

Steve huffed. “We’ll see about that. But come on, give me something I can find!”

“Oh, are we interested now? Fine fine. Hm. Well, there is Arcturus, that’s the brightest star in the northern sky. Look at the Big Dipper and then further west you should see a bright star.”

“West, west, ah! Yes, I think I found it.”

“Well, Arcturus is part of the Boötes, the genitals of the herdsman if you will.” 

This made Steve laugh, but he had to admit there were too many stars visible, he had no idea which ones to look for.

“Well, the next brightest star is Vega within the Lyra. It’s… you know what. Does this really interest you? Because I can try to pinpoint you around the sky for hours, but there are very useful apps for that.”

“There are apps for showing stars and constellations in the night sky?”

“This is the 21 century Steve! Of course, there are. Stars, constellations, planets, satellites, whatever you want. I can send you two that are without charge? But you’ll need internet to download and use them.”

“As you said, this is the 21 century and I’m not totally lost in the wilderness, send them over.”

“Enough wilderness that you can see the stars.”, Bucky was still pouting, okay? ”There, I did send you two apps. The first one will show you all the constellations. I do prefer it but I end up using them both because instead of changing the settings I just use the other to search for stars.”

“Oh cool, I’ll try them out later. And will dutifully report what I found.”

Sadly Bucky had to hang up because he really needed to study. But his study session would be interrupted by Steve sending him enthusiastic texts. ‘ _Okay, I have found the Vega and the Boötes.’ ‘I found Cassiopeia!’ ‘Oh wow, I didn’t know that the swan lays right on top of the Milky Way._ ’ 

Even better, the next night Steve showed Sarah the app and earned another level up in the category of ‘Best Daddy Ever’, as he told Bucky while they were speaking on the phone the next evening. “Seems like I have even more to make up to you, somehow I’m not sure if coffee is enough anymore.”

“Well, how about a real date then?” 

There was a moment of silence that made Bucky freeze up and he opened up to apologize for presuming that he didn’t want to pressure the man. 

“Yeah.”, Steve’s soft voice stopped his mind from spiraling. “Yeah, a real date sounds really nice. Could you… a Friday maybe? I’ll try to get Wanda- that's my babysitter by the way- to stay an evening until I’m back. And then we can go out.”

Bucky’s heart was beating too loud. “Yeah? Really? A real date?”

“Yeah Bucky, would you go on a real date with me?”

“Yes!”, his smile was so wide it started to hurt his face, but Bucky couldn’t care less. 

Steve went all out. He picked Bucky up with his car, wearing a suit that made Bucky’s knees weak. He even gave him flowers! Bucky could only run around his room like a headless chicken trying to figure out where to put them and then meekly asked if it was okay if he relocated them to his parent’s house the next day. Steve only shrugged sheepishly, saying he just hadn’t wanted to come empty-handed. The man was so adorable, Bucky nearly squealed.

Next stop was a restaurant that was very clearly out of Bucky’s budget. Steve just insisted that he had to treat Bucky right and that he should simply enjoy it. Which he did, it was delicious, but he still wondered how he even got into the restaurant without wearing a suit.

Steve ended the evening by giving Bucky a toe-curling kiss in front of his dorm building while saying goodbye. 

When Bucky floated into his room with a flushed and faraway look Quill looked at him with glee. Right, Bucky now really had to do something about the Quill-Gamora situation.

* * *

“Is there something I can help you with?” Bucky startled and looked with wide eyes at Gamora, who was standing right in front of him and her raised eyebrow showed how unimpressed she was.

“Uh. Nothing?”, he squeaked

“Really? I have seen you lurking around for the past few weeks. What. Do. You. Want.”

Holy shit, that was one scary woman. Which was the reason why Bucky had such a problem with approaching her. She was gorgeous, intelligent, and scary. All in all, she was so out of Quill’s league Bucky didn’t even know where to start selling him.

“You’re Quill’s roommate.”, her eyes narrowed some more. “Is he sending you to stalk me now?”

“Oh my god no. I’m not stalking. I’m not. I’m just- uh. Keeping my distance because I have no idea how to approach you? And Quill doesn’t know I’m here, okay? He is innocent of that crime! Really he isn’t that bad of a guy! He just grew up with, uh, dubious company? I’m working on it, okay?! And I could really use an alley, and uh- I know you are totally out of your league, but you are the only decent human being- girl, I mean, no woman- that he has ever been interested in? Like really interested. I know this is hard to believe, but he really has a huge crush on you. Real crush. Crush crush. I know he is an idiot, but an endearing one! If you would just try to get to know him, maybe you would actually like him?... Please don’t kill me?!”

Gamora still looked at him with raised eyebrows, but her lips had curled up with amusement. There was still the question if it was good or bad amusement.

“I like Quill just fine already, as long as he keeps his fingers to himself and doesn’t turn everything into a sexual joke. Admittingly he had been better about that in the past months.”

“Well, uh, I’ve been coaching him? You see, he is really putting in real effort?!”

The woman in front of him now truly grinned with amusement. “Is that so? So tell me-”

Bucky was saved by his ringing phone. It was Steve. Steve was calling him. Which was nothing special per se, but normally he texted beforehand and asked if Bucky had the time. Now Steve was calling him out of the blue on a Friday afternoon after he had been rather reserved the past weeks. With his heart beating, getting its next adrenalin rush within minutes, Bucky picked up. “Steve?”

“Bucky! Hey, uh, this may sound weird but,... I’m getting delayed at work. A project we need to finish today and… It could be hours before I make it home, but we have to finish and… Wanda is watching Sarah for now, but she wanted to go to the movie theater tonight and Nat is still working, and so is Clint and I… I don’t…. Could you, maybe, watch Sarah until I get home?”

The man sounded like he was about to have a panic attack and Bucky felt for him considering he just survived one when Gamora approached him. “Hey, take a deep breath. And yes, sure I can watch Sarah. What do I need? Where should I go? And when?”

Steve let out a relieved breath that Bucky felt in his bones, even if Gamora was still locking at him with raised eyebrows.

“Thank you. Just… thank you. I know you haven’t been over before, and I guess I should have invited you over a while ago, but… Nevermind. I’ll text you the address and Wanda is with her right now, but maybe if you could show up in an hour? Just bring an overnight bag in case?”

“Yeah sure. I can do that.”

“Okay, and thank you. I need to hang up now, but fuck Bucky thank you.”

“It’s no big deal, Steve. You know I adore your daughter just as much as you do.”

There was a huff on the other side of the line that Bucky didn’t know how to interpret. “Yeah, I guess you do. See you later, okay?”

“Okay.”, Bucky said and then listened to the tone that indicated that Steve had hung up.

“Who was that?”, Gamora asked curiously.

“Uh, my boyfriend?” Expect that Steve and Bucky hadn’t even spoken about their relationship status yet. Bucky had meant to be somehow never dared.

“Boyfriend.”, Gamora repeated, and how did that woman pull off so many expressions with a raised eyebrow?!

“Yes, boyfriend. Is that a problem?”, Bucky steeled himself, but the woman just smiled softly “No. Not at all.” 

They stared at each other in silence for a moment. “So I guess if you are at your boyfriend’s place tonight, Quill is going to be all alone in his room?”

Eyes widening Bucky gaped at her. “Yes? I mean at last until 10 or something? He will probably go out after that.”

“To find a girl for the night?”, Gamora said with displeasure.

“No? I don’t think so, he hasn’t brought anybody over in months and also always came home.”

“Really. Hm. Maybe I should visit him.”

“I don’t know if coming to his room-”

“If he touches me I will kick him in the balls.”

“Yeah, about that. I’m not sure that discourages him.”

“I noticed.”, she said with a pleased grin. 

“Okay, whatever. I don’t want to know. Maybe go out partying with him? Or whatever… and if he ever asked about this, can we please pretend that I was totally smooth and badass?”

Laughing Gamora squeezed his cheek. “You are a good friend and certainly brave, but you are too adorable to be a badass. But fine, this will stay between the two of us. Now go and entertain your boyfriend’s daughter instead of me.”

* * *

Ringing the door to the apartment complex the Rogers lived in, was strange. Talking to an unknown girl on the speaker wasn’t much better. Stepping into an apartment that smelled like Steve, knowing the man wasn’t here left a weird feeling as well.

But seeing Sarah shyly peeking her head around the corner and the way her eyes lit up when she saw him made something in his chest squeeze so good that it hurt. “Bucky!” she called and rushed towards him.

“Hello, my little star.”, Bucky said as he caught her in his arms.

“Hi.”, she mumbled against his neck and squeezed tight. Realizing that she wasn’t going to let go anytime soon, Bucky hugged her against himself and stood up to greet the girl that was looking at them with a smile. Wanda studied psychology and had looked after Sarah nearly the entire time the Rogers had lived in Manhattan, therefore she was very familiar with the whole apartment and showed Bucky around with ease. 

“Okay, you’ve got any other questions? I left my number on the table, just in case. Or you could just call Steve, I guess. I told you that the food is in the fridge, right?”

“Yes, and that I just have to reheat it in the microwave. I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. You have fun eating popcorn!” 

“Thank you. Good night Sarah!”

After Wanda was gone Sarah and Bucky looked at each other in silence for a moment.

“So, what are we going to do now?”, he asked her with a smile. This prompted Sarah to show him around the apartment again, this time from her perspective. That way he got introduced to EVE the robot vacuum and Sarah’s most precious stuffed animal, Stitch.

Getting her to eat was not a problem, but getting her to bed a while later wasn’t that easy. “I want to wait for Daddy!”

“Okay, how about this little star, you and me both get ready for bed.” Sarah gave him an unimpressed look. “And then I’m going to show you something.”

In the end, curiosity won and he managed to get the young girl ready for bed without too much resistance. Then of course she watched with narrowed and suspicious eyes what he was getting out of his bag.

“This is a night sky projector. It belongs to my roommate Quill, you remember him? He was so nice to loan it to us for tonight. Do you want to see?”

Bucky watched her eyes lit up and grinned. Now to the second part of the plan. “How about we get comfortable for that. I mean the guest bed should be a good place to lay down so that we can watch the stars in peace, right?”

Sarah looked at him as if she knew exactly what Bucky was up to but then she nodded with a pout. “Fine, but let me get Stitch.”

“Sure, I’ll set the projector up, okay?”

Bucky stole a stool from the kitchen and placed it in front of the bed before putting the projector on. “Ohhhh!”, was Sarah’s delighted response when she returned with the blue stuffed animal in her arms. 

“Isn’t it? Now go on, get under the covers. We don’t want you to get cold, do we?” Sarah narrowed her eyes at him again but ultimately did as he said.

Bucky laid down on top of the sheets next to her and they spent time pointing out stars to each other. Sure enough, Sarah started yawning after a while. What Bucky hadn’t anticipated was that Sarah was not only getting tired but also cuddly. Eventually, she tried to crawl on top of Bucky, and he only talked her out of it by agreeing to get under the sheets with her.

With her tiny head against his chest, she eventually fell asleep and Bucyk felt like the owner of a cat that had fallen asleep on him. Don’t move. Don’t even breathe. Stroking her hair with a smile, Bucky simply closed his eyes as well and dozed off.

The apartment door woke him from the slumber, for a moment he saw Steve’s silhouette in the bedroom door before the man hastily left. Blinking at the fake night sky until he was a bit more awake, Bunky gently moved Sarah away from him, so that he could go and find her Daddy. 

Nearing the master bedroom, Bucky heard sobbing. Waking up fully he rushed to the door and knocked, “Steve?”

There was no answer, except for quiet sobs. Hesitantly he opened the door and found Steve sitting on his bed, face hidden behind his hands while sobs shook his body. “Steve?”, Bucky asked again, stepping closer.

Touching the man only made him curl up tighter. Nevertheless, Bucky sat down beside him and put an arm around him. “Shhh. It’s okay. Shhh.” Relieved he felt that Steve leaned against him. “Hey, tell me what’s wrong?”, he asked with a heavy heart.

Confused Bucky realized that Steve let out a small chuckle, but at least stopped crying. “Let me remove my contact lenses.”, the man said with a hoarse voice while rubbing his face before he stood up without looking at Bucky. 

Unsure if he should follow the man or not, Bucky remained seated and looked at Steve’s bathroom door with a tight feeling in his chest. He could hear Steve move around, heard him wash his face, and then there was a moment of silence before the door opened.

Steve stood in the door, glasses on his nose, but was still not really looking at Bucky. The younger man wanted to curl into himself, he didn’t understand what was going on. “Did I do something wrong?”

Finally, Steve looked at him, and his eyes widened. With three big steps, the man was in front of Bucky and engulfed him in his arms. “No, god no. You did nothing wrong.”

“Then why were you crying?” Bucky asked with a small voice as he clung to the man. Steve made a step back and Bucky felt like being gut-punched. But the man leaned down and caught Bucky’s mouth in a featherlight kiss. 

Blinking up at the man, Bucky felt sick with confusion. “I don’t understand.”, he said in a meek voice.

Another featherlight kiss was Steve’s answer and then the man maneuvered them down on the bed. “Everything is alright. I’m sorry, I was just caught off guard when I saw you and Sarah cuddle in the bed.”

“Should I not have-”

“No! It’s alright, I just… I told you right at the beginning, that Sarah is my top priority. I was… hesitant to bring you here, into our space and… Sarah already likes you so much and if this doesn’t work and you decide to walk out of the door in a week or a month… then it’s not just me who is going to get hurt, but her as well.” 

“I- I don’t want to walk out of the door in a week or a month? I mean I can’t promise you things like I will be here forever, but… I would like to be here forever?”, Bucky said with uncertainty as he looked at the other man.

“Fuck, why are you so perfect.”, Steve said and leaned down to capture his lips in another kiss.

The soft kiss soon turned into a heavy make-out session, when Steve rolled on top of him and attacked his mouth with intent. Bucky felt like he was being pulled under as he gasped for air when Steve let go of his mouth and moved back a bit. But the gleam in the man’s eyes as he pointedly looked from Bucky’s face down to the visible tend in the younger man’s sleeping pants, only made Bucky whimper.

Steve’s eyes bored into his while the man’s lip curled into a teasing grin. “Have I been worrying so much about my baby girl that I completely neglected my baby boy?”

With wide eyes, Bucky looked as Steve removed his glasses and gave him one last kiss on the lips before he kissed his throat, his chest, his stomach-

“Oh.”, slipped out of Bucky’s mouth before he hastily put a hand over it to keep quiet, aware that Sarah was sleeping just next door.

Steve’s tongue was a tease. Bucky tried to keep his noises down and eventually searched for a pillow to stuff his face into. Tried to not immediately come when Steves’ hot mouth finally engulfed him. Tried to not thrust up, but Steve’s large hands settled on his hips and kept him in place. Of course, this display of strength only made Bucky groan.

“Steve. Steve. You- Steve, I’m - Fuck. Steve I’m going to come.”, he tried to whisper but it felt like he was shouting. Steve’s thumbs stroked his stomach in answer, while the man’s mouth never stopped his work.

“Steve. Steve. Steve.” Bucky moaned into the pillow, hips bucking up, and when Steve simply pressed him down a little harder, Bucky was done for. 

Dazed and unbelieving Bucky laid in Steve’s bed when the man eventually kissed his way back up his body. But he refused to kiss Bucky’s mouth, making the younger man whine in displeasure. “Na-ah, none of that. Let me brush my teeth, then we can go to bed, okay lovely?”

“But what about you?” Now Steve kissed his forehead with a smile. “I’m good. Don’t worry about me, another time, hm?”

Letting out a displeased sound when Steve’s warmth left him, Bucky blinked and set up feeling a bit dizzy. Holy hell, he hadn’t seen that coming. They had so far shared a few mind-blowing kisses, and there had been a few very suggestive calls, but this? Giggling like a schoolgirl Bucky stood up on wobbly legs.

Still giggling he reached the open bathroom door, to find Steve looking at him with a raised eyebrow. Combined with the toothbrush in his mouth it looked so hilarious that Bucky burst into more giggles. “What?” the older man asked amused but opened up his arms when Bucky stepped closer. Busying himself by playing with the man's beard, he let Steve clean his teeth mostly in peace.

After Steve was finished he turned back to Bucky and asked again why he was giggling so much. Bucky had not let go of Steve even once and now looked up at him, at the crinkling eye wrinkles and the sparkling blue eyes, and felt like his chest was going to burst. “I’m happy.”, he said while pecking Steve on the lips with a big grin.

“Happy, hm. Well, that’s what we want.” Steve murmured against his lips with a smile. Feeling like he would fly away on a cloud if Steve didn’t hold him steady, Bucky smiled so hard his face was starting to hurt. 

Chuckling Steve left a peck on his forehead. “Okay darling, let’s go to bed, hm? I want to look after Sarah one last time and then we can cuddle in bed, how does that sound?” 

Sounded like the best idea ever, but Bucky wasn’t letting go of Steve anytime soon, so the man had to maneuver them to the bedroom while Bucky was clinging to him. 

“She looks so small in this huge bed.”, Steve mumbled into Bucky’s hair once they stopped in the doorway. The guest bedroom was still illuminated by the fake night sky. Sarah’s cute little nose was pointed upward while she snuggled with the Stitch toy. One of her arms laid outstretched in front of her as if she had been searching for something.

That was exactly the place where he had lain, Bucky realized while his heart made a little flop. “It’s too big for her alone.”, he whispered and looked up at Steve with a smile.

The man looked at him questioningly, so Bucky gave him another little kiss before letting go to slip back into the spot next to Sarah. Her little nose twitched and her hand came up to twist in his shirt. Looking up Bucky found Steve still standing in the doorway with wide eyes, the man looked like he was about to start crying again. Bucky looked at him hesitantly, wondering if he shouldn’t have given in to the impulse to go back to bed next to Sarah. 

But then Steve smiled softly and closed the door behind him before slipping into bed on the other side of his daughter. He pressed a kiss on Sarah’s head while his arm settled above Bucky’s head so he could ruin his fingers through the younger man’s hair. Their eyes met and Bucky returned Steve’s soft smile. “Good Night Stevie.” “Sweet dreams, lovely”.

* * *

In the morning Bucky woke up to soft voices talking beside him. Opening his eyes he looked at unfamiliar bed sheets in an unfamiliar room and turned around slightly confused. The voices stopped and Bucky looked at a smiling pair of Rogers. Steve was sitting up against the headboard with Sarah in his lap. Blinking Bucky remembered where he was and felt a big smile bloom on his face. “Morning”, he mumbled.

“Good morning, moonlight!” Sarah grinned and jumped at him. With a grunt, Bucky caught her and decided that this rude behavior needed to be punished by tickling. Shrieking the little girl tried to get away from him, tried to get help from her Daddy, but Bucky held on tight and Steve only looked on with amusement.

Finally, Bucky had mercy on her and stopped. Panting she laid against his chest and grumbled. “That was unfair!” 

“Oh, was it? Well, I think jumping at me was rather rude.” Bucky said back mockingly and looked up at Steve with a cheeky grin. The man chuckled and leaned down to kiss Sarah on the head and then moved up to do the same with Bucky. Oh. The younger man felt like a puddle of goo because his insides were melting so hard with feelings. 

“Come on the both of you, time for breakfast.” Bucky wasn’t sure if he could move right now, but Sarah sat up on top of him with a gleam in her eyes. “Pancakes?”

“Yes, if that’s what you want, little sunshine.”, Steve said with an eye roll but smiled. “Yes!” Sarah beamed and bounced out of the bed to run for the door.

Meanwhile, Bucky rolled over until his head was in Steve’s lap. Just as he had hoped the man started stroking through his hair. “Did you sleep well?”

“Like a baby,”, Bucky mumbled while nuzzling Steve’s stomach and hugging him. “You as well?”

“Of course, had both my precious people right there beside me.” Feeling his throat close up with feelings again, Bucky hugged Steve a little harder. But their moment was interrupted by a loud: “Daaaaaddyyyyyy!” 

Steve huffed and ruffled Bucky’s hair one last time. “We better feed the little tiger before she comes back and eats us. No peace when you have kids.”

Remembering his little siblings Bucky laughed and sat up. “I’m aware. But it was pretty peaceful tonight.”

“Yes, well, when they sleep there seems to be peace, but let me tell you it’s more like the calm before the storm,” Steve said with a grin as he stood up. Doing the same, Bucky suddenly stopped “Uh, should I get dressed, or take a shower or…?”

“You can do what you want, but I’m feeding the tiger.”, Steve kissed his cheek before leaving towards the kitchen.

For a moment Bucky just remained where he was, trying to process how he had landed himself into this domestic family life and then congratulated himself for making all the right decisions. Then he searched for his socks and after a quick stop in the bathroom entered the kitchen as well.

Sarah was grinning at him from where she was sitting on top of the counter, while Steve was roaming around. “Can I help somehow?”

“Uh, yeah. Could you- in that cupboard are the plates and cutlery is in that drawer. And then look into the fridge? Oh, yes look into the fridge, we should have some blueberries.”

Smiling Bucky made himself useful and set the table while the smell of pancakes started to fill the room.

“No, moonlight first!” Sarah said when Steve wanted to give her the first pancake and suddenly the pancake was on Bucky's plate instead. “Moonlight?”, he asked Sarah with a raised eyebrow. This was now the second time she had used the term.

Sitting up straight, Sarah looked at him with a serious face. “Yes, you are moonlight. You say I’m a little star and when I grow up I’ll become a sun like dad, that’s why he calls me little sunshine. So if I’m a star and dad is the sun then you have to be the moon.”

Bucky blinked and looked at Steve who just shrugged as if to say, _kids logic what can you do_? So Bucky just shrugged back, seemed like he was moonlight now. 

“And there is only one star in our universe?”, Bucky said teasingly while eating his pancake.

“Well, mom is a star that is a sun further away. But otherwise, yes since I have no siblings at all.” Choking Bucky looked at her disgruntled and Steve’s disbelieving face and broke down laughing.

After breakfast, Bucky retreated to the guest bedroom with the plan to get himself ready. It was then that he looked at his phone for the first time since last evening. It was full of messages of Quill. Oh. Right, he had forgotten about the Gamora situation.

Laughing out loud Bucky read these texts. They went from Quill panicking in the bathroom because Gamora was sitting on his freaking bed and _what had Bucky done?!_ to the last message when Quill proudly told him he had made new friends and send a picture along, titled Guardians of the Galaxy. Besides Quill, Bucky recognized Rocket and Gamora. The latter was looking at Quill with a fond smile, so Bucky grinned in satisfaction.

“What are you laughing about?”, Steve asked from where he was leaning against the door. Still grinning Bucky beckoned him closer, until he could press his face in Steve’s stomach. “Nothing, just my roommate amusing me.”

“The one that was on the Expo with you, Quill?” “That’s the one.” Bucky breathed against Steve’s hard body and dared to squeeze the man’s ass with his hands. “What are you doing, Buck?”

“Nothing?”, he said innocently. “But really how are you so fit? When do you have time for that?”

“All the evenings I’m not calling you.”, the man deadpanned but leaned down to kiss Bucky’s head. 

“Well, that explains it… Call me more often?”, Bucky blinked up innocently while hoping he didn’t sound too needy. But Steve laughed and stroked his cheek. “Or you could just come over.” 

Heart beating faster, Bucky bit his lips. “Yeah, you would want that?” Steve pulled him up until Bucky was pressed against him and then kissed him softly.

“I would want that quite a lot. Actually... I wanted to ask if you- Sarah’s birthday is coming up and I wanted to know if you would like to come? It’s not going to be big, just well some friends of mine, some friends of hers.” 

“Yes. Yes of course. Think she would like a projector as a gift?” Bucky said while running his hand through Steve’s beard. “Oh yes, I’m sure I will hear nothing else from her for days other than that she wants one.” Steve groaned good naturally. 

Still nibbling on his bottom lip, Bucky decided to ask something he had wanted to ask for some weeks now but hadn’t dared: “I- uh, I wondered if maybe, would you want to meet my family?” 

“Yeah, baby, of course. You meet on Sundays all the time, right? maybe just me at first and then Sarah another time? Let me figure something out.” “Okay.”, Bucky smiled while trying to suppress his tears. 

“Are you cuddling without me?”, came the affronted voice from the door, and soon enough all three of them were laying on the bed again. It was not like even one of them had gotten out of their sleepwear anyway.

* * *

Bucky was laying on a deckchair with Sarah in his lap, holding his phone so that both of them could look at the star app and the sky above. Here in the Catskill Mountains, the air was free of auto fumes and there was no light pollution since there were also no clouds on the night sky, it was perfect for stargazing.

“Okay, time for bed Sarah!” Steve called from inside the cabin, but since they made no move to stand up he eventually came out. “Come on my lovely stargazers. Time to get inside, it’s really cold.”

Sarah was grumbling but there was no denying that her eyes were dropping. “You know, your father chased us through the mountains basically all day. I’m beat to, little star.”

Grumbling some more Sarah held out her arms so that Steve would pick her up. The man did so while jokingly complaining that she was becoming too heavy before he held out a hand to pull Bucky up as well.

“Your hands are ice cold.”, Steve said concerned and rubbed them. It was November now, so it was not that warm at night anymore.

“I’ll take a hot shower, or no I think I’ll take a long hot bath. The bathtub has been calling for me!” Bucky said with a grin but had to suppress a squeak when Steve stopped rubbing his hand and instead squeezed his ass. 

“Well, I’m sure we’ll find _some way_ to heat you up. But go take a bath while I put little Miss Sunshine here to bed.” The look the man gave him through his glasses was already enough to make Bucky hot all over. Then again the glasses alone made him hot all over, something Steve had figured out quickly and used to his advantage.

Saying goodnight to Sarah, while trying not to blush, Bucky hurried to get himself into the bathtub. Sinking into the water he felt his body relax. Hiking was new for him, but surprisingly enjoyable. Luckily with Sarah, Steve couldn’t go all out, so Bucky was spared from really sore muscles. 

At least from hiking. Maybe there would be some time for more exercises later? With Sarah exhausted she would be sleeping deeply which in return meant that Steve and he didn’t have to fear interruptions. Grinned to himself, Bucky decided he just had to clean himself thoroughly now.

Leaving the bathroom Bucky found Steve sitting on the bed reading. Smelling of body oil and only wearing a bathrobe, he crawled into the older man’s lap. Hands coming up to stroke through Steve’s beard. Because that was one of Bucky’s favorite things to do. “Hey there, handsome.” 

Steve’s hand sneaked under the bathrobe and caressed his tights. “Hello lovely. Smelling good.” Exchanging a kiss made Steve narrow his eyes at him. “Did you already brush your teeth?”

“Well, I have no plan of leaving this bed again tonight. Don’t think I want to move more than needed after you are done with me.”

“After I am done with you, hm?”, Steve asked amused while nuzzling his throat. 

“Yes, I mean I just cleaned myself very thoroughly, I thought maybe you wanted to check.”

By now Bucky knew that daring or teasing Steve was like playing with fire. The heat in Steve’s eyes and the grin on the man’s face told Bucky he was in for it. But that was exactly what he wanted. 

Suddenly his bathrobe was gone and Bucky’s arms were pinned on his back by one of Steve’s large palms. Naturally, this made Bucky wiggle and then groan when he again realized how strong Steve was. Meanwhile, the other hand came up into Bucky’s hair, moving his head back until his throat was exposed to Steve’s tongue. 

“That so? Well then I better make sure you were really thorough, don’t I?”

Sucking and licking his way down Bucky’s body, Steve moved him as he pleased. When he reached the younger man’s nipple and sucked hard, a loud moan escaped Bucky’s mouth.

“Shh, baby, you need to be silent.”, Steve said with a wicked grin, before attacking the other nipple. Biting his lips, Bucky once again tried to get his arms free. But Steve liked him like this, totally at his mercy while desperately trying to keep silent. 

Even when Steve moved him so that Bucky laid down on his back, the older man simply held his arms secure on his chest, while he started licking further down the younger man’s body. Bucky should have known that this would happen. That Steve would literally lick him everywhere to make sure he really cleaned himself thoroughly. 

Giggling at his predicament was maybe not the wisest decision, because Steve used the distraction to suck on Bucky’s sensitive hips before moving towards the inside of his tights. 

“Steve.”, Bucky finally whined, when the man kept sucking and licking but completely ignored his hard and leaking cock. 

“What’s it, darling? I'm just making sure you’re clean all over, I’m not even halfway done.” 

Bucky’s eyes rolled back at the nonchalant tone of Steve’s voice. As if he hadn’t already played with the younger man’s body for what felt like hours. Bucky’s hips bucked up, desperately trying to find his dick some friction. 

Now Steve chuckled, god damn chuckled at Bucky’s desperation and gently bit into the tight he had been playing with. “Steve.”, Bucky sobbed out now, a first tear escaping his eye.

“Shhhh, lovely, look at you. Already so desperate, hm?”, the man cooed, but then his hot tongue suddenly left a wet trail up Bucky’s neglected shaft. “Ahhhh!”

“Na-ah, keep it down, Bucky.”

Wanting to curse the man as well as beg him for more, Bucky bit down hard on his lips and twisted in another attempt to get his arms free. Of course, this only made Steve chuckle some more, while he kept on licking. Only ever licking or gently sucking, but he never took Bucky’s cock in his mouth.

“Steeeeeeeve”, Bucky whined again, because it was driving him absolutely wild.

“Oh lovely, you should see yourself. Skin so beautifully flushed while you’re wiggling around in a desperate attempt for more. Greedy boy.” And then Steve sucked hard on his frenum, before attacking it with his tongue. For a moment Bucky couldn’t breathe, while his eyes rolled back and hips thrust up frantically until Bucky finally came all over his stomach with one long moan. 

Gasping for air Bucky tried to come down from his high, while Steve slowly kissed his way up. Seeing the smirk on Steve’s lips made him shiver. “Already made a mess, hm? So impatient.”

Using the discarded bathrobe Steve cleaned him up, finally letting go of his arms. But Bucky just laid there boneless, not even trying to move them away. 

Steve leaned back down to give him a soft kiss. “Look at you laying there, all relaxed. You’re so gorgeous, so sweet for me.” Steve’s voice lulled him, as did the soft kiss the man was giving him. 

“But I haven’t licked you everywhere, yet have I?” A thumb pressed teasingly against Bucky’s rim, making his eyes widen at the implication. But before he could even get a word out, he was already all fours with his ass in the air.

When the wet tongue licked over his rim Bucky shouted into the bedsheets, forgetting everything he had wanted to say. Instead, he hastily searched for pillows he could cling to, he could scream into. Because there was no way Bucky would manage to stay silent when Steve ate out his ass. Not to mention that the older man gave him no time to recover before he went to town. 

Soon Bucky was thrusting into the mattress while moaning shamelessly into the pillow. Just when he was hard and stiff again, Steve stopped.

Whining at the loss only made Steve chuckle, as the man laid down next to him. “Well, you certainly cleaned yourself very thoroughly. I’m done with my inspection. Time for bed?”

Letting out a high pitched scream into the pillow, Bucky sat up with a furious look on his face. “You are a little shit, Rogers. No, not time for bed. _I’m not done with you_!”

Steve was still laughing when Bucky jumped at him, straddling his hips and attacking his mouth aggressively. When he moved his hips and felt Steve’s hard dick against his, Bucky grinned pleased. Seemed like Steve would not be uninterested in continuing their activity. Even if he was still fully clothed. 

“Get yourself out of these damn clothes!” Bucky growled as he stood up to get the lube and condoms from their hideaway.

The man kept laughing but did as he was told, laying naked in the bed when Bucky returned. Hastily going back to straddling Steve’s hips, Bucky sighed pleased when their naked bodies met and Steve moaned with fluttering eyes. Grinning with satisfaction Bucky robbed back a bit and teasingly kissed the other man’s shaft. 

“Here, get that on.” He hit Steve’s chest with the condom while pouring lube on his fingers to prepare himself.

“Very romantic, Buck.”, Steve said with an amused eye roll. Bucky stuck his tongue out. As if he cared about that at the moment, he wanted the D. 

Just as Steve finished rolling the condom on, Bucky removed his fingers and moved in.

“Bucky! You didn’t- Fuuuuck.” was Steve's surprised reaction, hands squeezing Bucky’s hips almost painfully, while Bucky sank down on him.

With his mouth opened in a silent scream, Bucky’s legs trembled. His quick preparation with two fingers was nowhere near enough to take Steve’s cock in one go. It burned and felt huge but it was. oh. so. good. 

Laying down on Steve’s chest panting but with a satisfied grin, he wiggled a little until he could kiss the man’s slack mouth. 

“Holy shit, Bucky.”, the man said panting. “Fuck your so tight... that was nowhere near enough preparation.” Bucky nearly cooed at the worry he could hear in Steve’s voice.

“I’m fine, you prepared me with your tongue, didn’t you?” Bucky said into the wet mouth beneath him, hands coming up to comb through Steve’s beard while he slightly moved his hips. In response, Steve groaned and squeezed his asscheeks. For a while they stayed like this, softly kissing as they slowly rocked their bodies together.

When the burn lessened Bucky sat up straighter and started to ride Steve in earnest. The other man’s hand wandered all over his body, watching every move Bucky made, telling him how beautiful he looked, how tight he was, how good it felt.

Under the attack of Steve’s hands and words, Bucky’s movement faltered and eventually, the older man pulled him back down to hold Bucky tight while he fucked up into him. “Come here lovely, you’re getting all distracted aren’t you? Turning all stupid for my dick.”

Whimpering Bucky clawed at Steve’s arms, trying to stifle his moans against Steve’s shoulder. Loving how in this position his dick was caged between their bodies, rubbing deliciously against Steve’s hard stomach. The man was speeding up and kept a fast pace until Bucky could only try to hold on and moan. “Steve, I’m gonna- Ah! Steve. Gonna come. Steve. Steveeeee.”

With the man’s name on his lips, Bucky shuddered and came all over Steve’s body. The man just kept holding him down, kept fucking into him, while the younger man helplessly drooled on his shoulder, whimpering his name in encouragement. Thrusting hard Steve groaned deeply into Bucky’s ear, holding him even tighter against his chest. This way Bucky could feel Steve’s whole body tense up as his dick pulsed and spill inside him.

Humming in satisfaction Bucky left little kisses on wherever he could reach without moving too much until Steve's breath calmed. The man stopped squeezing Bucky tightly and instead slowly stroked his back while their mouths met for a lazy kiss. 

“Happy now, Buck?”, Steve said while gently kissing Bucky’s face.

“Very. Now we can sleep.”, Bucky grinned back, earning him a swat on the ass. “Not yet. First, we’ll clean up.” 

Bucky hummed but sat up slowly so that Steve could pull out before he searched for the bathrobe. Wiping himself clean before rolling off Steve he robbed below the cover and hugged a pillow close. “I’m done.” Bucky knew why he had brushed his teeth already. 

“You are one clever boy, aren’t you.” Steve laughed as he stood up. “Didn’t even get a drop on the sheets.”

“I had that perfectly planned out.”, Bucky grinned against his pillow. 

“Yeah, I see that. Stay awake until I’m back from the bathroom, okay.” Steve said while kissing the younger man’s shoulder.

“Okay.”, Bucky yawned and snuggled deeper into the sheets. His body was humming in satisfaction, even if it also had some grievance about the rough penetration. There was absolutely no way that he wanted to stand up in the nearby future, he wasn’t even sure if he could. Already he knew that he would have to suppress wincing tomorrow. Worth it.

He dozed off slightly until he felt Steve climbing into the bed again. “Still awake, baby?”, the man said, when Bucky rolled over to greet him.

“Yeah”, Bucky breathed back, trying to pull the other man closer. 

“Sleepy, hm? At least put on a pair of briefs, lovely, we both know that Sarah will storm this room in the morning.”

Grumbling but accepting that he would rather not be naked when Sarah jumped at him in the morning, Bucky took the briefs Steve offered him.

“And besides that, do we really have to go to bed already? I still haven’t seen Sirius, we should go down so you could finally show me.”, Steve said in a totally innocent voice but with a smirk on his lips.

“Forget it. I’m not moving.”, Bucky pouted while rolling away to hug his pillow again.

Chuckling Steve switched off the bedside lamp and pulled Bucky closer. “Fine. You’ll have to show me another time then. But that won’t be a problem because I’m keeping you. We have all the time, right?”

Bucky’s breath stocked, while his heart felt like it was going to explode. Taking a shuddering breath, he moved until he could see Steve’s eyes in the faint moonlight. “I- uh. My mother wanted to know if you and Sarah would be coming over for Thanksgiving.”

Bracing himself on his forearms Steve looked at him caught off guard and Bucky winced, aware of how sudden this topic change was. “Thanksgiving is in less than three weeks, Bucky.”

“Yeah, well, she asked a while ago… I just… “, the younger man shrugged.

“Oh, baby, were you scared of asking?”

“No, I mean, yes? I- I love my family, I want you to meet them all, I want Sarah to meet them all. But I know they are a lot and-”

“Yes”, Steve said and kissed him on the mouth.

“Yes, you will come to Thanksgiving?”

“Yes, we will come to Thanksgiving. If it gets too much we will just go for a walk or something. Sarah and I are surely not used to a big family, but… I would love to meet them all as well.”

“Oh, okay.”, Bucky felt himself relax into Steve’s arms.

“But Bucky, don’t be stupid and just ask in the future? Without carrying it around with you for weeks.”

“Okay”, Bucky said sheepishly and snuggled closer. 

Steve was stroking his hair and looking down at him with a fond smile. “Hey, Bucky?”

“Hm?

“I love you.” 

Bucky’s mouth opened in surprise, while his head jerked back until he could see Steve’s soft and honest eyes. Tears welled up in his as he kissed Steve again and again with soft desperation, while the older man tried to wipe the tears away. “I love you, too.”  
  


Fin

* * *

“We are not naming him Stitch. If we encourage her further Sarah will demand that we call her sister Lilo.”

“Oh? Are we getting her a baby sister as well?”

“No, we just got a dog from the shelter, and we are not naming him Stitch!”

“I don’t see the problem, Stitch is a cool name. Oh, we could get a cat as well and name her Lilo! Just think about it, Stitch here having fun with WALL·E in our garden, while Lilo cruises through the house on top of EVE.”

“Bucky, I love you and I love our daughter, but we are not naming the dog Stitch.”

They did name the dog Stitch. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you had as much fun with this story as I had!  
> I would love to hear from you, either here or on [tumblr](https://allegedlyann.tumblr.com/). 🤗


End file.
